It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! No, not what comics websites and publishers say were the best comics of 2013, but rather the rundown of the top selling comics for the year. Diamond Comic Distributors released the list this week, and there may be a few titles on the list that may surprise you.

Demonstrating the strength of the comic book specialty market, comics and graphic novels had another strong year, with 2013’s annual sales increasing 9.04% over the previous year, as comic book sales were up 10.22%, while graphic novel sales were up by 6.5%.

As far as publishers go, Marvel came out on top of the direct market ranking with a 33.50% Dollar Market Share and a 36.97% Unit Market Share.

2013 Market Share

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR SHARE

UNIT SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

33.50%

36.97%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

30.33%

33.35%

IMAGE COMICS

8.00%

8.49%

IDW PUBLISHING

6.47%

5.10%

DARK HORSE COMICS

5.17%

4.50%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

2.72%

2.59%

BOOM! STUDIOS

1.99%

1.92%

EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS

1.25%

0.26%

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

0.98%

1.06%

AVATAR PRESS

0.89%

0.74%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

8.70%

5.02%

With the success of The Walking Dead, and that issue #115 was said to be one of the biggest moments in the entire series, it isn’t that much of a surprise to see Image Comics hit the top spot with its zombie book in 2013.

Top Ten Comics for 2013

RANK

TITLE

PRICE

VENDOR

1

THE WALKING DEAD #115 (MR)

$2.99

IMAGE COMICS

2

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1

$3.99

DC ENTERTAINMENT

3

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1

$4.99

DC ENTERTAINMENT

4

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

5

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

6

INFINITY #1

$4.99

MARVEL COMICS

7

X-MEN #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

8

AGE OF ULTRON #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

9

UNCANNY X-MEN #1

$3.99

MARVEL COMICS

10

SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2

$3.99

DC ENTERTAINMENT

Are there any surprises in the rundown from Diamond Comic Distributors? Is there a book you thought would rank much higher? Use the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Unit and dollars sales are calculated based upon orders invoiced and shipped to Diamond accounts during January to December 2013, which comprises initial pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable.

The Author

Stephen Schleicher

Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment.

You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...